Halloween Favorites Feature

Jennifer over at Jennifer Hayes Art was kind enough to include my needle felted spider in her Felt Friday-Halloween Favorites feature. Visit her blog to check out her other Halloween favorites and her own original art work.

Carlsbad the Bat

I thought October would be a good time to introduce a needle felted bat to my etsy shop. Meet Carlsbad the Bat:

Trash to Treasure

S: When I was in college I went out to check the mail and spied an old door set out with the neighbor's trash. I walked across the street to take a look and decided it had potential. So I picked up the entire door and carried it into my garage. The door had a decorative metal grate on the front, which I unscrewed from the rest of the door, then returned the door to the neighbor's trash...I wonder if they ever noticed. I gave it a couple of coats of spray paint to hide it's original shiny brass color.

This piece has had many uses, I hung it over my couch in college to separate the living room from the dining room.

Zach and I hung it on the wall in our first apartment, with a painted blue rectangle behind, to add a little color to the all white walls.

Now it's out on the patio of our home.

I wonder what we'll use if for next. It's like the Barbie of home decor, how many careers has that doll had?

Misty Ridge Designs Giveaway!

Misty Ridge Designs is hosting a giveaway for a set of bags from my etsy shop! The giveaway will run from Monday, September 28th through 9pm (CST) Thursday October 1st. Visit her blog and check it out!

Garage Organization Part 1

S: I promised I would share pictures of all Zach's hard work cleaning up and organizing the garage. I'll start with something little, that makes a big difference, at least to us.

Both of our garage door openers were wired along the ceiling of the garage, instead of in the attic, which is directly above, and easily accessible. This really annoyed two perfectionists such as ourselves. When we replaced the door from the garage in to the house, we had to pull all the wiring to the buttons away from the door frame. Then they just kind of hung there from the ceiling, taunting us with their glowing green buttons...for months, and months, until we had time to rewire them. You had to dodge them on your way in and out of the door not to mention reach up above you and hope you pressed the correct button for whichever door you wanted open.

Zach even took time to make a wooden piece to mount the buttons to, which I painted white before we mounted it to the wall. For the next week or so after it was fixed, I would still reach above me looking for the buttons, until I remembered they were on the wall, where they belong.

Trash to Treasure

S: There are several items in our home that I'm quite fond of, and they didn't cost a penny. I found them all patiently waiting for the garbage man to take them to their final resting place.

This is the first post in a mini series of the trash-to-treasure finds in our home. I hope you're inspired to do a little curbside rescuing yourself. Also, thanks to my mom who snagged some of these items for me!

Have you ever been driving down the street and seen an antique solid wood desk set out for trash day? My mom's neighbor was throwing away said item, that had been sitting unused in their garage. When I found it, it was painted in a dark glossy brown....not attractive at all. But it had all it's original hardware and some great details. Luckily it was on wheels, so I got my mom and we rolled it down the street to her house. I spent hours with paint stripper and scraper in hand, trying to remove what turned out to be three layers of paint. At some point I stepped back, realizing I would never get all the paint off, and also realizing that hey, I kind of liked how it looked. It definitely has a shabby chic look to it...emphasis on the shabby. But I adore this little desk. Zach not so much, since he bumps his knees when sitting at it.

Can you spot the needle felted monkey?

I scream you scream

Carvel and Coldstone are both giving away free ice cream today! The weather is pretty cool here in Austin, but who can pass up free ice cream?